HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), on Thursday, approved a partial settlement and recommendations from PUC administrative law judges for a substantially smaller than requested base rate increase for Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania — trimming the Columbia Gas increase by nearly 50%.

The commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt the recommended decision issued by Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge Christopher P. Pell and Administrative Law Judge John Coogan and approve the joint petition for partial settlement in this case. The commissioners also voted to approve a non-unanimous settlement on revenue allocation and rate design which allocates the costs among the utility’s customer classes.

Under the partial settlement, the increase in Columbia Gas rates will result in additional annual operating revenues of approximately $44.5 million (5.5%), which is approximately 54% of Columbia’s original request for $82.2 million in additional annual revenues.

Per the rates addressed in both settlements, the total average monthly bill of a residential customer using 70 therms of gas per month will increase from $123.24 to $128.96 (4.6%), compared to the original request from Columbia Gas, which would have raised that same total monthly residential bill from $123.24 to $135.67 (10.09%).

The partial settlement was supported by the PUC’s independent Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate, the Pennsylvania Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA), the Pennsylvania State University, Columbia Industrial Intervenors, the Retail Energy Supply Association, Shipley Choice, LLC, NRG Energy, Inc., the Coalition for Affordable Utility Services and Energy Efficiency in Pennsylvania (CAUSE-PA), the Pennsylvania Weatherization Providers Task Force, and Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania.

The OSBA opposed the non-unanimous settlement.

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania provides natural gas distribution service to approximately 440,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in portions of 26 counties across western and south-central Pennsylvania.

Read the 141-page partial settlement at www.puc.pa.gov/pcdocs/1767004.pdf

Read the 123-page recommended decision by Pell and Coogan at www.puc.pa.gov/pcdocs/1760262.pdf